The Preconditions of Revolution

To come closer to the heart of the question: firstly, there is a limit not inherent to production generally, but to production founded on capital. This limit is dual, or rather revealed one and the same when considered from two angles. It is sufficient here, in order to have discovered the basis of over-production — the fundamental contradiction of developed capitalism — to show that capital contains a particular limitation on production, a limitation which contradicts its general tendency to push beyond any barrier on its production. This is the discovery in general that capital is not, as the economists think, the absolute form for the development of productive forces, that it is not the absolute form of wealth coinciding absolutely with the development of productive forces. Viewed from the standpoint of capital, the stages of production that preceded it appear as so many fetters on the productive forces. But, correctly understood, capital itself appears as a condition for the development of productive forces so long as they need an external stimulant which is at the same time a brake.